Impractical and Improbable
by MarinersRevenge
Summary: But a wish for a good night turns into a conversation about next week's gig and then it turns into- "budge over a bit, Pans?"- them slouching into the small booth with drinks. And suddenly, Pansy blinks, the night is over and Draco is walking away in a whirlwind of cool spring air and a toss of his hand. Part 3 of Tiny Star


**This story takes place during "Together they flew" and the beginning of "Starlight."**

 **Just like "Starlight," this story has background Dramione. It's also a pre relationship story but I'll be listing the pairing in summary.**

 **Nope, I still don't own anything. Unfortunate, really. All things belong to JK Rowling.**

* * *

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off

Pansy watched the cigarette smoke curl lazily to the ceiling. It's lazy ascent disturbed by the ring of smoke she blew, they joined together at the ceiling and disappeared.

She turns her gaze to her fingers holding the cigarette and watches the redden tip glow in the muted light from the street lamp outside. It was her last cigarette until she went to the shop to buy more but she relished the taste of this one. To her the last cigarette in the carton always tasted like the last kiss at the end of a relationship that had slowly fallen out of love; full of bittersweet memories and promises and hopes unfulfilled.

The bed sheets rustled beside her and a hand lazily trailed up her uncovered stomach toward her exposed breast breaking her out of her musings. The wandering hand plucked the cigarette from hers, she giving no resistance, and she watched as it brought the cigarette down to a pair of smirking pink lips. Grey eyes glint in the dim light of her room and watched her hungrily.

"Hey… that's mine."

There was no heat to Pansy's admonishment, she wasn't truly upset at the loss. The man sat up on his elbows allowing the bed sheet to fall down his torso exposing the V of his hips, not missing the way that Pansy watched its descent. He opened his mouth and slowly released the smoke he had had inhaled, his pupils dilated in the half light. He reminded her of a dragon, dark and alluring, and Pansy licked her lips unconsciously still eyeing the taunt muscles of his abdomen. He, in turn, watched her pink tongue dart out and the rise and fall of her heavy breasts.

"Come get it then."

His voice was deep and gruff, it held challenge and it sent shivers down Pansy's spine in anticipation. Not one to back down, she traced her fingers along hips and then up his toned stomach, watching his face as desire bloomed in his eyes. He hisses as her fingers work their way back down to below the sheet and he stubs out the cigarette before pulling her down into a searing kiss.

He tastes like ashes and the alcohol they had consumed and she feels like she has been lit on fire and burning on both ends.

He breaks the kiss and trails his lips down her throat nipping and sucking at the junction between her shoulder and neck effectively marking her.

"You're mine," his voice growled in her ear and she gasped as his fingers cupped her breasts, his mouth descending on her nipple, laving them with his mouth and tugging on it gently before repeating the same actions on the other. She arched into his mouth and he drew back the cold air shocking her, before his warm mouth started to trace down her stomach, his teeth rasping on her hip bones. His hands danced down her sides, slowly, before gripping her thighs and pushing them open before they moved back to her hips. He moved back up and kissed her fiercely before settling himself between her thighs. She pushed her hips up toward him in encouragement but he held them down with his large hand and looked at her.

"I want to hear you beg. I want to see you writhing in pleasure that only I can give you because your mine. Say it, Pansy. Tell me who you belong to."

He began to work his fingers up each side of her thighs, each time drawing nearer to her cunt. Her clit throbbed in anticipation and she could feel the warmth of his breath as he inhaled the musky scent of her arousal.

"You!" Pansy gasped out as his finger slid through her wetness and began to lazily circle her clit.

"Who?" he drawled as he applied more pressure with his thumb and his index finger circled her opening.

Pansy growled as he drew her to the edge, she was never a patient person, but he made no motion to continue, only teasing her more. She looked down into her grey eyes that glinted mischievously up at her. Combined with his sinful smile, she felt herself get even wetter. It was a power struggle between them each time they came together but she loved it.

She loved him.

Taking mercy on her, he slipped a finger in and the added touch made her throw her head back in ecstasy. He added another finger and began to pump slowly them, with each pass he'd gently stroke her G-spot, feeling her walls flutter around her. Pansy felt the tension building in her lower abdomen and knew she was close but right before she came he stopped. She looked down at him again, he was tightly coiled and waiting for her answer, she saw the control wavering in his eyes.

"Who do you belong to?"

Pansy groaned in frustration and anger, clutched his silvery hair in her hands before yelling out, "You! Oh God, I belong to you, Draco!"

And then he replaced his thumb with his tongue.

Pansy woke up slowly, blinking in the late afternoon sunlight that streamed through her bedroom window. She brought her hand up and touched her lips. She could still feel the kiss bestowed upon her by the Dream Draco as she had begun calling him. Still feel his hot breath and feel his hands trailing down her body. She sighed, feeling the slickness between her thighs.

Oh how she wished he was here right now.

It was a thought that echoed through her head the entire last year of upper school. She had promised herself that she would tell him her feelings at graduation but then they never got time alone as they were swamped by friends and family. Then the summer came and he opted to spend that time away with his newly divorced mother, Narcissa, and his aunt, Andromeda, on one of the many Malfoy owned properties. She didn't see him again until they both started classes at the same university almost a year ago. But once again time was not on her side. Between her art classes and his engineering classes, that he shared with Theo, she has only been able to text him. While initially she refused to confess over a text, she was starting to think that maybe the way to go.

Sort of like, "Hey I like you a whole lot and I have erotic dreams of you every night!"

Ok, maybe not like that but in text form she could then send a "just kidding!" if he rejects her. Well she hopes he doesn't, they were engaged in some flirting in school and she felt that her feelings were reciprocated. They had to be, right?

Right.

Pansy was so glad when she finally grew into her looks. Her nose no longer was pug-like, a graduation gift from her oh so generous mother. Her dark hair fell in waves around her slender neck and she nodded, satisfied in her appearance. Tonight was the night, she was going to tell him that she liked him after his show. And if there was rejection then she could just get copiously drunk and then take out her aggression on some unwitting bystander.

She arrived at the pub and settled into her usual chair near the front. Glancing around she noticed the curly brown haired girl that had been there for every show that month. Pansy scoffed and shook her head, Draco certainly had a knack for gathering a following of groupies. He never paid any mind to them and they usually left him alone when they saw Pansy sitting with him. Her scowl and penchant for being cold and unyielding generally kept them at bay, they thinking that she was his girlfriend.

Not yet, anyway

The pub was small enough that Pansy could get a good look at the girl from her seat, she conceded that she wasn't terrible looking. She had slightly chubby cheeks, a small button nose and wide dark colored, brown maybe, eyes and her curly hair that fell in wild spirals down her back. She wasn't model gorgeous like the Greengrass sisters, or statuesque and elegant like Narcissa but she certainly held a natural charm. She was pretty but Pansy smirked in the knowledge that that girl will be ignored by Draco as well. Sparring one more glance at the girl she turned back to the stage as the lights dimmed.

* * *

Pansy collapsed face first on her bed and covered her head with her blanket.

The night had not gone to plan.

She met him as she always did at the end of the stage and he greeted her with a smile and kiss to her cheek- Pansy definitely did not catalogue how soft his lips were for future reference. He asked her how classes were going and she pretended to understand his.

It was normal, it was nice and then he volunteered to grab drinks.

She didn't notice him walking towards the brown haired girl at the bar.

Or Draco giving the girl his phone number.

But she did notice that he forgot the drinks and that he was listening distractedly to her.

"Hey, what's up? I know my classes aren't as engaging as yours-"

"What?" Draco cuts her off with a confused look and shakes his head.

"Sorry, Pans. I-"

"Ugh, don't call me that!"

Draco laughs- Pansy's breath hitches at the sound, her mind going back to her late afternoon dream- and she threatens to punch him. He holds up his hands in surrender and promises - "Liar!" - that he won't do it again. Until the next time he sees her at least. They fall into a comfortable silence and she lets the noise ease her nerves. Now is as good a time as any.

"So I was wondering if-"

She doesn't get a chance to finish as just then Draco's bandmates come to wish him a good night. She smiles tightly and gives a curt nod is greeting, her whitening knuckles the only indicator of her annoyance. But a wish for a good night turns into a conversation about next week's gig and then it turns into- "budge over a bit, Pans?"- them slouching into the small booth with drinks. And suddenly, Pansy blinks, the night is over and Draco is walking away in a whirlwind of cool spring air and a toss of his hand.

It wasn't until a few days later that she found out through fucking Blaise that Draco had started texting some bint all day, at all times of night, interrupting his beauty sleep.

She destroyed her beds pillows imagining this nameless girl's face.

She calmly buys more online and tells herself that Draco will get tired of talking to whomever this girl is soon enough.

* * *

"Today was a complete and unmitigated disaster!"

A snort greets her from the other side of the couch.

"Well I could have told you that. Especially when I had warned you that Dr. McGonagall's course was research intensive. But no, you didn't want to listen to Old Cas," he imitates her voice, " _'Oh no, Cas! Why didn't I listen to your gorgeous, perfect and awe-inspiring self! Whatever should I do!'_ "

Pansy sits up and throws a pillow at his stupid- albeit gorgeous- head, laughing.

"I do not sound like that!"

She wasn't sure what her bond with Cassius Warrington was exactly. They've been friends since she punched his younger brother in the face for grabbing her arse on a dare from his dickhead friends when she was twelve. Cassius was fourteen and distinctly intimidating but she raised her chin in defense of her actions- she'd do it again- only to be surprised when he clapped his hand on her shoulder and told her "You've got a hell of a right hook!" They've been friends ever since. When asked she would say that "They were friends...?" The line was always blurry around him. In fact she wasn't even sure that there was a line.

"Why am I friends with you again?"

Cassius flashes her a knicker dropping smile.

"Because I am absolutely gorgeous."

Cassius nods his head in conformation of this fact.

"My god. How do you fit through doorways with your big head?"

"Hey!"

He cries in mock offense as he pulls her into his lap. Pansy laughs as she settles back into his arms and closes her eyes. After a moment of quiet, Cassius speaks.

"Come on, Pansy. I've known you since you were twelve years old and I know when something is bothering you."

Pansy shrugs and looks to the side.

"I feel...out of sorts. Like, I know I am not the easiest person-"

"Oh boy, that's the understatement of the century."

Pansy pinches his side where she knows he's ticklish, enjoying making him squirm. He grabs her hands and settles them in her lap.

"Ok, ok! I give! I'll be quiet. I'm just saying..."

"Hush, you. Now, I know I'm not the easiest person," Pansy pauses and looks at him. He raises his hands in supplication and she continues, "to get along with but I always figured it would be Draco and I, together, against the world." She misses the tensing of his body at the mention of her and Draco together, his face a perfect mask. "Well on the day I was going to talk to him, he met this girl who's perfect. Like I don't even think there is a bad bone or flaw in her body and Draco is just- he's just so...enamored. I've never seen Draco this way with any girl, even me. We still talk, you know, but less than before. But he's so infatuated with this girl and now I'm like relegated to the side like I'm some side character left pining."

Cassius takes a deep breathe muttering to himself, "Can't believe I'm saying this…"

Pansy looks at him confused and he smiles at her.

"Look, I know that you don't want to do so. It's hard, Jesus, it's so fucking hard to talk to someone about your feelings. But you have to, you have to make that decision to open yourself up. Maybe things will be clearer. Maybe they won't but you got to talk to him. Just... think about it."

Pansy is silent turning over what he said in her head.

"Have you ever told anyone how you feel about them?"

Cassius sighs and his expression is sad.

"Yes and no. There is a girl I liked, or rather still like, but she was too young for me then. And while she is older now, she's probably in love with some other bloke. So the timing was never right."

"You should tell her," Pansy says. She feels bad for burdening him with her dilemma, especially when he's got enough on his mind.

"Really?" Cassius quirks an eyebrow at her in amusement.

"Yeah," Pansy nods, "You know, practice what you preach."

Cassius begins to tap her palm again and they sit listening to the wind blow through the trees. His voice was soft and Pansy snuggled into his warmth.

"I'll think about it."

* * *

It's been four months since that night and Draco is still talking to Hermione. She learned her name through a text conversation with Draco who was practically gushing - "Malfoys do not gush"- about Hermione this and Hermione that and did you know Hermione also likes carrot cake?

Life moves on as it always does, deaf to Pansy's pleadings and wishes for time machines.

Or at least laser rifles.

"The science is theoretical at best and impractical at worst."

Pansy stabs her salad with her fork a bit too hard and it scraps against the ceramic. Theo winces at the sound and fiddles with his soup spoon. They were hanging out in the school's café and it was not because this was the same café that Draco and Hermione visit all the time.

"What, time travel or laser rifles? Why is it impractical?" Pansy asks slouching back in her chair - "Ladies, do not slouch." her mother's voice echoes in her head- and eyes Theo's dark chocolate brownie. He rolls his eyes and slides it towards her.

"Lasers aren't strong enough yet for them to cause a lot of damage but they are getting there. Time travel and time machines are impractical."

At Pansy's blank stare and hostile chewing of the brownie (she was imagining Hermione's head) he sighs and begins to unwrap his crackers.

"Ok, imagine that this is you," he holds up tooth pick, "and this is space time." Theo points to his soup bowl.

"Alright, so you want to go back to a certain point in time, let's say you want to go back to a year ago," he carefully breaks apart the cracker in his hand and let's it float on top of the soup, placing the toothpick on top. "What are you going to do when you get there? Well you are going to change some of your decisions you made at key points. Say for instance, instead of skipping that class you stay or instead of going out with that guy, because you know how it will end, you don't. You change a outcome here, a decision there and it's all toward making your life easier right?"

Pansy nods still not seeing Theo's point.

"But the problem with time travel is that you don't just remove yourself from the timeline. Your past self is still there running around and they are still making choices and decisions while you are trying to negate those."

At this Theo starts to crumble up the cracker sprinkling it all over the top of his soup.

"So in the end you have all these different decisions and outcomes that you made but at the same time your past self is doing so as well. And now they are overlapping and crowding and space time is starting to become cluttered and unstable."

Using his spoon he swirls the soup around bunching and clashing the cracker pieces together, in the midst of that the toothpick becomes lost in the chaos.

"Eventually the timeline will become so cluttered and unstable that it will start to break down causing a massive chain reaction that could destroy everything."

He fishes out the tooth pick and eats a little of his soup. Pansy stares despondently at him thinking over his words.

"So I could destroy everything."

"Yes... Or nothing will happen and you'll get every outcome you wanted."

Pansy perks up a bit at that but Theo shakes his head.

"Just because you get everything you want doesn't mean that you get to keep it. Time and space may be fluid but there have to be balances."

Pansy grabs her bag and looks out the large café window, spying Draco's tall form walking in the late summer's light and who she can only assume was Hermione's smaller form next to him. Getting up to leave, she looks at Theo.

"I don't know why I hang out with you. You're no fun."

There was no heat to her words. Theo grins wolfishly at her and she rolls her eyes, shuffling past him out the cafe's side door.

Later that night she orders books on Space Time and Time Travel. Hey, Theo said it was impractical but Pansy is a creature of impracticality.

* * *

Blaise party was terrible.

But this bottle of whiskey was making this worthwhile. Especially if she had to stare at Draco and Hermione engage in heavy amounts of PTA.

Having crushed her fifth- was it my fifth?- plastic cup, Pansy wandered off to just find the bottle of whiskey. Who needs cups anyway?

At the drink table, Blaise saddles up to her.

"Have you seen Theo?"

Pansy looks at him and narrows her eyes. Pointing a perfectly, albeit unsteady, finger at his chest; she pauses, takes a deep breath and replys.

"No."

Turning back to the table she snags a still full bottle of whiskey off the table and takes a swing.

"Seriously Pansy? What if someone wants to drink from that?"

"Then they're gonna have to drink something else cause this is mine," Pansy takes another swing and relishes the burn down her throat. "This party is terrible Blaise. Why oh why did you throw it?"

Blaise shakes his head and motions with his chin.

"See that gorgeous redhead with that nerdy looking guy pouting beside her?"

Pansy looks and sees them conversing in the corner. "What about them?" she drawl as she takes another swing of her drink.

"I've been like super flirting with her _and_ boyfriend all night and he has yet to catch it. She's on to me though. He's completely oblivious."

"I didn't know nerds were your type. Redheads, sure but nerds?"

Blaise places his hand on his chest.

"Darling, every type is my type. Speaking of types, are you involved with that bloke who hangs out with you all the time? Cassius or something?"

The bottle stops it's ascent to her lips.

"Cassius? Why?"

"Because he's gorgeous? Like is there any other reason?"

Pansy takes a long drink from the bottle. Cassius and her involved? That's hilarious, improbable. But… no, Cassius was hers.

Wait, hers?

"No, we aren't involved," Pansy laughs nervously. She doesn't understand what these feelings, it might be the alcohol.

Blaise stares at her for what seems like forever, eyebrows quirked to his forehead.

"Yeah, ok. I think you had too much to drink."

Pansy scowls at him and defiantly chugs the rest of the bottle. Which was a mistake.

A terrible terrible mistake.

In the morning, she remembers swearing Blaise to secrecy and something about a decorative plat and deep shame. Looking at her phone she gasps but then sighs in relief. She had tried to send a text to Cassius that simply said "Mine." To her great relief it was unsent.

Flopping back on her pillow, she vows to never drink again.

Until next weekend at least.

* * *

If you thought Pansy was the sort of person to track time on a large complex chart with faces and string connecting everything together tacked up on her bedroom wall, you would be wrong.

She has an app for that.

"Pansy, why do you have so many books on time travel? Are you thinking of changing majors?"

Pansy snatches the book out of Cassius' hands and places it down on her night stand.

"No. It's just some... light reading."

Cassius raises his eyebrow at her and reclines back on her bed like he lived there.

"So what has Queen Pansy been up to lately?"

"Uhhhh..."

Pansy averts her eyes and touches the keys on her laptop.

"Um, nothing really...?"

Definitely not spying or subtly investigating who this Hermione was. Especially now that Draco and Hermione have been together since late October and it's been one month since then. And what Pansy found was aggravating.

Perfect.

She was perfect.

That bitch.

And it wasn't even about Draco anymore, at least to Pansy's knowledge he was still there in the periphery, this obsession with who he was talking to. At first, yeah, she felt a distinct feeling of wanting to murder her in her sleep but now.

Now, it's still a very strong dislike that have somehow superseded her feelings for Draco.

"Nothing?"

Pansy nods her head, still not looking at him.

"Yup, nothing. Nothing at all."

She hears him laugh and it does not send shivers down her spine. Nope, definitely not.

The unsent text message floats into her mind and the familiar yet confusing feelings it caused. She roughly pushes them to the side.

"Ok, so I heard from a little birdy that you murdered at least ten plastic cups last night and drank the entire bottle of Jameson yourself. Before throwing up in the decorative plant in the lobby."

Pansy hisses and turns to face him "Blaise! He promised he wouldn't tell anyone!"

Cassius laughs again.

"So what's really going on?"

Pansy sighs again and spins in her chair.

"Things have just been, you know. I am either in class or out here buying things online and reading. Reading, Cas! Like I don't fucking read but then," she gestures to the books piling up on her night stand, "I have books on theoretical science! Science, Cas! And it's not even about Draco anymore!"

"What do you mean?" his face was carefully neutral, his body was tense.

"I may have, uh, pulled some strings to find out about Draco's girlfriend Hermione?"

Cassius fixes her with an unimpressed glare and she feels ashamed. Maybe she did go a little- ok, a lot- overboard.

"Why would you look her up?"

Pansy places her head in her hands and sighs.

"I don't know… I at first wanted to dig up some dirt, you know? Find something embarrassing or possibly scandalous that I could hold over her head or give it to the student newspaper; I didn't exactly have a plan yet."

Cassius is still staring at her when she looks up and her cheeks color with embarrassment and shame.

"Pansy, that's something your mother would do," his voice as quiet and Pansy looked away.

Yeah, it was something her mother would do. Dig into people's- competition- pasts and use it against them. The list of families affected by her mother's actions was far reaching. When Pansy was a child she didn't understand but reveled in the respect of her teachers and headmasters of her various schools. She did not see the anger or defeat reflected in their eyes. It wasn't until she got older that she saw the bodies left in her mother's wake. It took her a long time to come to terms with that.

"I know... But I had to see Cassius. I had to see why he chose this girl. Why her?" Pansy's voice breaks, "Why not me? I have been there from the beginning with Draco. I have always been there through good and bad. Through everything! I just wanted to know why not me? Why her? And you know what's funny? She's bloody perfect. She's a genius, she skipped grades and graduated from school when she was 14, two years before everyone else. She volunteers during the summer months and all her teachers like her. And here I am, a volatile mess and she's a goddess among us."

Cassius walks around the bed and pulls her into his arms, her tears wetting his chest.

She feels tired, her outburst draining her energy.

"Thank you," she whispers.

"It was no problem."

"I feel so tired. Just so tired…"

Cassius nods and leads her to her bed, she gets under the covers and reaches for his hand. She hasn't felt this vulnerable in a while.

"Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"

Without a word, he climbs beside her and cradles her body close, her chin tucked under his. His steady heartbeat thrums through her body and she drifts.

She dreams of eyes the color of sea peering into her own and long fingers grasping hers tightly and light brown hair glinting in soft light. They are floating on water and she feels so free.

It's such a strange feeling.

Free.

She doesn't know what to do with it. She wonders if her companion feels the same way.

"Pansy?" they whisper.

"Yes?"

"It's time to let go now. Just let go."

Pansy is afraid. What do they mean?

"But if I let go, I'll lose you. The ocean is too wide and deep and I can't swim."

The voice laughs.

"Don't worry, love. I'll be right beside you the whole way but you have to let go. I know you're scared, I'm scared too, but I'll be right here."

Pansy stares into the expanse above her, feeling the gentle rock of the water below.

And she let's go.

* * *

The week went by slowly for her after that. She felt subdued but her mind for the first time was clear. Her soul bare. Was her dream the cause? She didn't know but maybe it was.

For the first time in forever she didn't know what to do with herself.

That's not true, exactly.

She did know but she was still frightened of it. It seemed though that Fate was going to take it out of her hands.

She had just gotten back from class, when a knock sounded from her door.

"Draco."

"Pansy, I haven't seen you in a while."

Pansy smiles at him and takes the time to look at him, really look.

Nothing.

No fluttering of her pulse, no feelings of elation. Draco was now just Draco, her friend. She watches as he shifts from foot to foot. Pansy rolls her eyes at him and gestures for him to come in. He looks around her bedroom, noting the new pillows she had bought so many months ago and the piles of books littering her night stand. He fingers one and smirks at her.

"Planning on going back in time to become a queen, Pans?"

Pansy snaps her fingers.

"Damn! How did you know?"

And just like that, they were back. Eventually the topic of Hermione came up.

"Draco. How come you didn't tell me about Hermione?"

Draco's pale features flush in embarrassment.

"Well… Remember that night at the pub a year or so ago?"

"You expect me to remember a year ago?"

Draco gives her a look and she huffs in amusement.

"Yes, I remember. You went to get drinks and never brought them back."

Draco laughs, "Yeah, that was totally smooth of me. It's just that for the past few weeks I had seen her sitting there at the bar by herself for every show. I know I had groupies before but she wasn't one of those. Every time she came in she wouldn't flock to the stage like those other girls and she would leave immediately after. I was intrigued really."

Pansy nods and taps her fingers on her desk. She draws a breath.

"Why her?"

Draco looks at his fingernails.

"I thought at first it would be a one off, you know? That I would find her to be boring and then I would never talk to her again. It's happened before. But then…," he looks at his hands and spreads out his fingers, " she wasn't any of that. She was smart and funny and beautiful, so so beautiful and everyday I heard something that reminded me of her and I wanted to tell her immediately. I wanted to see her, I wanted to be around her all the time."

He huffs and looks at Pansy.

"I fought it. I didn't want anyone to have such a effect on me but the more I fought-"

"The more they took root. Yeah, I get it."

Draco and Pansy smile at each other across the expanse of her room and she does. She gets it because she realizes that she was fighting something too.

Long after he left- with the promise to text her later and set up a dinner date with Hermione so she can get to know her better- Pansy stares out her window at the soft glow of the evening light, she comes to a decision. Taking out her phone she shoots off a quick message.

 _Pans: Would you like to go for drinks on Saturday?_

 _Cas: We always go for drinks on Saturday.._

 _Pans: I mean as a date._

 _Cas: [typing]_

 _Cas: [typing]_

 _Cas: [typing]_

 _Pans: Cas? You ok over there?_

 _Cas: [typing]_

 _Cas: YES. I mean, yes, I would like that._

* * *

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 **You guys rock.**

 **Until next time.**


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